milley: these were short range. they were not any big missiles. >> going to go back to the phones, see if phil from reuters. >> [inaudible] >> ok, back to the room. >> a quick follow-up. since the tr is the only ship toh covid cases, any plans punish the officer who ordered the ship to go into vietnam, or the officers that compromised the aircraft carrier? and for both of you, do you have any evidence the virus began in a chinese lab, and maybe was released accidentally? inspectors all over the world inside nuclear facilities. is it time to have those kind of inspectors in bio labs like the ones in wuhan? gen. milley: as you know the investigation was conducted at my direction. it was completed last week. it is with a cno last week. i do not know where it will go or where it will take us but expect it will be comprehensive. >> and with regards to the lab? gen. milley: on the first one by the way, that is going to be standard. i know everyone has a lot of questions on that on the tr. but for the secretary and i and a

a sailor from the uss thdore roosevelt on which nearly 600 for the virus general milley saysthe d o d is working much like the rest of america to ramp up coronavirus testg, especially for groups that are going to be in. i'm obably the entire quarters, t increase testg is just part of the pentagon's efforts to prect service men an women defense secretary mark esper ss he sent out a diective since januarfrom requiring ban to and from some us ses. >>this is a necessary measure to keep or people safe and our militaryready to act the o d hopes to increase the amount of testing in the next 45 days testing testing testing demrat california congressman eric swalwell one service members to know if they'vcontracted the viru >>and for the d o d to deploy antibody testing the service should be clarion calfor all of us as for says the mility ll continue to work through the chain of cmand to change longstanding military practices that mightallow the virus to spread how do you get 60 distancing on assad or even a carier for that matter. >>so the challenge ll always be implementation the pentagon s

i took the advice of the cno and general milley and told him i would support his decision. >> i want to ask you about the sailors because you mentioned what was going on with them. a pentagon spokesperson on friday said the goal was to have a total of 2,700 sailors off the ship by friday evening. as of yesterday afternoon, only 1,548 sailors had been moved ashore. more than a thousand away from your goal. what's the latest and why has the navy failed to reach the goal? when will everyone be off the ship? >> well, the navy is working that very carefully, very closely. the new commander will be out there, should be out there very soon. there is not a need necessarily to remove every sailor from the ship. you actually cannot do that because there's nuclear reactors to be run, you have very sensitive equipment, you have weapons on board that ship. so you cannot completely evacuate the ship. it's how you manage the crew, getting them treated when they need to be treated and at the same time maintain the readiness of the ship in case it's called upon to get to sea quickly. >> doesn't the f

>> harris: joining me now, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milley.r being on the program, taking the time today. i want to know whether you think this was an easy or a tough decision for the acting navy secretary, and why. >> harris, thanks for the opportunity. i'm over here at fema doing some interagency coordination. specific to the teddy roosevelt and the relief of the ship's captain, secretary p16 comic who is a difficult decision. none of them are ever easy. it's his estimation, he lost trust and confidence in the ship's captain. secretary modly is a responsible and accountable official to the american people. he had reason to believe that the captain operated outside the chain of command, and he relieved him. >> harris: is that the type of decision that you would make? >> well, i'm not in the position right now. i don't have all the facts, but i trust secretary modly in his judgment and i will support him, vesely. he is a responsible and accountable official for the american people. the ship's captain, secretary modly explained it. he operated

much more coming up next hour, as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milley, willis take on the two ships, the mercy and the comfort, that are there to help. and captain crozier and all the latest. stay close. ♪ new fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. fixodent. and forget it. my skin hurt, i felt gross. but then i started cosentyx and i haven't really had to think about it. real people with psoriasis... look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. >> melissa: our thanks to david asman and the rest of the virtual couch. dr. nesheiwat, do you have a final thought for our audience on this friday? >> dr. nesheiwat: yes, m

>>our condolences go out to his family joint chiefs chairman genel mark milley on the coronavirus deatof a sailor from the uss theore roosevelt on which nearly 600 sailors have tested potive for the virus general milley says the d d is working much like the rest of america to ramp up coronavirus testing, especially for groups that are going to be . i'm probably the entire quarters, th increase testing is just part of thpentagon's efforts to protect service men and women defense secretary mark esper says he sent out a dective since january from requiring social distancing to a trel n to and from some us bas. our military ready to act the d o d hes to increase e amount of testing in the next 45 days testing testg testing democrat california congressman eric swalwell one service members to know if they've contracted the virus. >>and for the d o d to depl antibody testing the service should be clarion call for all of us as for says the military will continue to work thugh the chain of command to change longstanding military practices that might allow the virus to spread how do you get 60 dis

milley, both saying nothing is conclusive yet.n the other part and all of this is you've got china, what do you do with them? what do we do in the gap, until there is that conclusive evidence? we still need information from them. >> so, harris, we may never have conclusive, direct evidence. we never will have the chinese communist party confessing to their incompetence, their corruption, and their allies. however, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence to point to those labs as the source of this pandemic. there is virtually no evidence, circumstantial or direct, to point to a food market in wuhan. it takes a bit of common sense to say the chinese communist party needs to be held responsible. even if we can't establish it conclusively, we still know that they covered up this virus for weeks in december and january when they could have been forthright, when they could have tried to arrest its spread in wuhan. instead, they made the decision, deliberately, to allow this virus to spread around the world. in my opinion, xi jinping

i would like to invite general milley. >> thank you, secretary, for those words. and thank you mr.r leadership. i want to publicly thank the commander of u.s. southern command out of miami. for leading this operation, which is underway effective today. and also admiral gill day, and admiral schultz further attributions to these services. there are thousands of sailors, coast guardsmen, soldiers, marines, involved in the operation. we came across some intelligent some time ago that the drug cartels as a result of covid-19 were going to try to take advantage of the situation and try to infiltrate additional drugs into our country. as we know, 70,000 americans die on an average annual basis to drugs. that is unacceptable. we are at war with covid-19. we are at war with terrorists. and we are at war with the drug cartels as well. this is the united states military. he will not penetrate this country. you will not get past jump street. you're not going to come in here and kill additional americans. and we will marshal whatever assets are required to prevent your entry into this country

i want to play a sound bite from general milley. i want everyone to listen closely to what general milley is saying when he was asked about the origins of this and whether it came from the wet market or whether it came from the lab. listen to this. >> should be no surprise to you we have taken a keen interest in it and we've had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at it. i would say it's inconclusive. the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. we don't know for certain. >> martha: seems to indicate natural. it was an accident but we don't know for certain. go ahead, senator. >> with all due respect, to the general, there are things he can say and there are things he can't say. congress needs to investigate this. not just congress, the entire world. let me say it again. the political leadership in china does not share western values. they will eat your lunch in the sack eight came in and lie to you the whole time about it. i'm not accusing the chinese communist party of anything but they have some explaining to do. if they

announcer: defense secretary mark esper and joint chief of staff chair general mark milley will brief reporters this afternoon on the military's response to the covid-19 pandemic. we will have live coverage starting at 2:30 eastern at the pentagon here on c-span. and president trump will lead the white house coronavirus task force briefing this afternoon, scheduled for 5:00 eastern. watch it live here on c-span. it appears to be much more serious and severe and deadly than other viruses we know. >> do you guys have any way of pushing the idea of disaster recovery preparedness up into the government organization so it is more of a top priority? thatam smiling as you say because he said it is the second highest priority. i would argue it is oftentimes dead last. >> share your experiences and ask experts your questions. join our live conversation every morning on washington journal, which starts at 7:00 a.m. eastern. and more live conversation weeknights at 8:00 p.m. eastern for washington journal primetime. thank you enough. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from new y

he briefed me about it, and i got -- i took the advice of the cno and general milley with regard to it, and i told him i would support his decision. >> i want to ask you about the sailors, because you mentioned what was going on with them. a pentagon spokesperson on friday said the goal was to have a total of 2700 sailors off the ship by friday evening. as of yesterday afternoon, only 1,548 sailors had been moved ashore. more than a thousand away from your goal. what's the latest and why has the navy failed to reach the goal? when will everyone be off the ship? >> well, the navy is working that very carefully, very closely. the new commander will be out there, should be out there very soon. there is not a need necessarily to remove every sailor from the ship. you actually cannot do that because there is nuclear reactors to be run. you have very sensitive equipment. you have weapons on board that ship. you cannot completely evacuate the ship. it's how you manage the true to make sure you're protecting them, segregating those who need to be treated while at the same time maintaining the

chairman of the joint chiefs general milley asked about it and said the evidence was on to inconclusive but look to natural. you can do natural but still have a botched handling of the virus in one of these labs and that's what we are getting tonight. >> sean: it certainly would speak volumes if they are not allowing people from wuhan to travel to china or any other areas of china but they are letting them travel internationally, that would mean they knew the risk was real. they protected their own country but nobody else and we already know that they were not forthcoming. there had been all of these internet conspiracy theories, you saw them and i saw them. this is a little different, but we really don't know what their intentions were except they didn't want to tell the world. we know that, that's clear. >> i will just say that i think you will see more and more coming out. speaking about this, obviously john roberts asked the president about it and he kind of didn't answer on the specifics but said he is hearing that more and more and he wouldn't talk about how he has talked to presi

included a and general milley and he would see if the data for plays 6 years politically and economically he was a failure there when i had an idea that that man would be good they would look like him he wanted people not to look like indians and he didn't like muslims he doesn't like christians so he 1st started by expelling for another meaning all the westerners who have been there during the british time and ne win turned to the issue of the just this distinct muslim population that where so far officially recognised as an ethnic community they were in step pretty general can you vote for a new winds into military intelligence in his book discovered as early as 1966 the burmese military started to see that will hinge or as a problem british government kick on logic while diving. bro in yeah or grabbing. hold up on a discounted what you call out. there than l.m. who are going to go by and by golly they're back and we're not it. part of them coming. that claim was that there were many illegal immigrants from bangladesh because there was a war for independence going on they started a mili

esperense secretary mark and joint chief of staff chair general mark milley will brief reporters this afternoon on the military's response to covid-19. live coverage starting at 2:30 eastern from the pentagon here on c-span. president trump will lead the white house coronavirus task force briefing this afternoon. scheduled for 5:00 eastern. watch it live here on c-span. 20 comes to trying to keep people from gathering together, how close are we to remote voting in the building behind me? is one chamber closer to that happening than the other? >> i think this virus is much more transmissible than many other viruses. serious be much more and deadlier than other viruses. >> you guys have a way of pushing the idea of disaster recovery preparedness up to the government organizations. i am smiling as you say that because it's the second highest priority. i would argue it is often times dead last. >> share your experiences with the coronavirus pandemic and ask experts questions. which lift conversation, starts at 7:00 a.m. eastern. more lift conversation weeknights at 8:00 eastern from washi

in a coup data and general milley and he would sit. for praise 6 years politically and economically he was a failure there when i had an idea that that man would be with this guy they would look like him he wanted people not to look like indians and he didn't like most of them see done like christians. so you 1st started by expelling foreigners meaning all the westerners who have and during the british time near when turned to the issue of the just this distinct muslim population that way so far officially recognized as an ethnic community they will step pretty general. and they went into military intelligence in his book discovered as early as 1966 the burmese military started to see that will hinge or as a problem british government or my. brother and eleanor who are going to be up on bangladesh back and who will light it. part of them connect that claim was that there were many illegal immigrants from bangladesh because there was a war of independence square on this started a military campaign which resulted in over 230000 your hand

it's so concerning right now, of course, is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milleytioning publicly that america's adversaries should not miscalculate and think that the u.s. or the u.s. military is unduly distracted by the coronavirus. he is saying, you know, don't miscalculate. we're still out there. and the routine military missions go on. poppy, jim? >> quickly, the captain of the u.s.s. roosevelt removed amidst all of this. is there any talk of bringing him back? >> well, the investigation now is done, and earlier today defense secretary mark esper said he would have to keep an open mind when the results of the investigation do come to him. as far as we have been told by multiple sources, no decision has been made, but as they say, all options are on the table. poppy, jim? >> that would be a notable turnaround. barbara starr at the pentagon, thanks so much. >> thanks to barbara. thanks to all of you for joining us today. we'll see you back here, of course, tomorrow morning. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. "newsroom" continues with john king. that's com

general milley said they can get it done. they are still in talks with the pentagon over the weekend about whether they could do this. governor cuomo has now said he's going to call the president directly, particularly about the comfort that is in new york harbor. but also -- and i don't know if you guys caught it, he spent a lot of time talking about that treatment drug. dr. makary, talk to me about the antimalarials that are being used and how effective they are. >> dr. makary: i think it's interesting. i think it's fascinating that the mechanism of action makes sense. they would be a benefit. i don't think the most promising medications are the ones we've heard about in the media. i think there's a whole bunch of other ones out there, and i think they are going through this long, tedious fda process, which is a peacetime protocol to approve beds. we are at a time of war. where we doing these trials where one person gets a small dose, then three people get a small dose? each interval has weeks of separation, so it takes two

amy: this came just one day after the pentagon's top general mark milley said the coronavirus likelyame from natural sources, not a chinese lab. on thursrsday, china's s foreign ministry spokesperson responded. >> china's position on the origin and means of transmission of the novel coronavirus, we will always believe this is scientific which should be studied by scientists and medical l experts. i would like to remind you, the head of the who has repeatedly said there is no evidence of the coronavirus was made in a lab. when he well-known experts also believe claims of the so-called laboratory have no scientific basis. amy: scientific journal the lancet has said that the virus seems to have come from wildlife. well, for more on the origins of the coronavirus, trump's response, and where we go from here, we are joined now by a zoologist who has long studied diseases that cross the animal-human divide and who for years has been sounding the alarm about a coming pandemic. dr. peter daszak is a disease ecologist and the president of ecohealth alliance, a nonprofit that works globally to

meantime, if you think we will have a spike in cases as people slowly returned to work for us mark milley have to readjust to that reality? >> i do think we are going to see some spikes. it's going to depend on how they're going to go about reopening. i think that we do need some instructions. take the meat processing plants for example. president trump using the defense protection act saying that we need to keep them open because they are critical to the infrastructure during his national emergency. at the bottom line is they don't know how to open up. they may need some more direction on what to do, may be, to be wearing ppe. maybe they need a negative test before going in. they need some sort of an limitation of social distancing. with those sort of guidelines, it's really about education. that's what my book talks about a lot. if you provide people with facts, that's how you're going to get anyone through anything. if people understand how this virus can move and what they can do to protect themselves and their family, their employees, and the institute those certain measures, and i t

on the joint chiefs chairman shared with me, general milley, that you can absolutely handle it no matter and you still only have 41 patients. >> wright, harris. we are ready right now, because we've been working and watching what's been happening, dealing very closely with some of the new york city and new york state officials. so we've been doing some of this reconfiguration in anticipation of our commander-in-chief telling us to move out of this. so we are ready now, executing as we speak. i worked with the governor and his team as well as the mayor to try to open up some of that communication to get the team and the patient's flowing, and i am very optimistic. we've had about 150 folks so far that we've treated at the various facilities that we do have there. we think that will drastically increase. for example, we have 60 at the javits center right now. we think we are the relief valve. we also have pushed about 300 folks directly into the hospitals to provide support there, that three prong approach of the doctors and nurses going directly to the hospitals. the javits center for kin

politico reporting that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milley, wants a morextensive investigation than what the navy has already done. secretary esper himself is also apparently in no rush to make any sort of decision. navy leaders have already reportedly verbally briefed secretary esper as to why captain crozier should get his job back, but esper is apparently holding out for a written version of that same information. i don't know. after he reviews that, he apparently plans to meet again with navy leadership to discuss next steps again. it's almost like he's trying to run out the clock on ever having to make a decision at all because who knows how the president will react once you actually decide something. you know what happened to the last navy secretary and the one before that? how about the last defense secretary and the one -- yeah. meanwhile, another u.s. navy vessel, a deployed u.s. navy vessel, a destroyer called the uss kidd, is in trouble now too. as of friday we reported that 18 sailors on board the uss kidd had tested positive for coronavirus. a

thank you and i would like to invite general milley. >> that was an important statement on enhanced counternarcoticsons in the department of defense, the u.s. military is about to engage in, but it's not directly related, clearly, to what's going on as far as the coronavirus pandemic is concerned. we'll continue to monitor that briefing. but sanjay, i interrupted you as we were talking about the horrific images coming out of italy and the vice president telling me earlier in the day that what we've seen in italy could wind up right here in the united states. >> you know, i mean, first of all, there is a little bit of good news perhaps coming out of italy now in that, you know, you're starting to see a decrease in the pace at which the new infections have been growing over there. the tough news, obviously, out of italy is that the fatality rate is hovering around 10%. it's always tough to make sense of these numbers, wolf. the numbers bounce all over the place. and as you know, if you don't do adequate enough testing, what happens is you miss a lot of people who may have the infection, but didn't end

general mark milley had to say this -- >> there's a lot of rumor and speculation.e've had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that and i would say at this point it's inconclusi inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural, but we don't know for certain. >> is the senate looking into this? is this something you think your committee and others should be probing? have you gotten any briefings on it? >> i haven't gotten any update from the foreign relations committee. i do think that if you listen closely to the chairman of the joint chiefs, that was a very careful statement, where he's saying a majority of the intelligence here still points to this being a virus that came about that jumped from animals to humans in one of these wildlife meat trafficking markets that are called wet markets. they are widespread throughout the developing world. there's a bipartisan group of us in the senate on the foreign relations committee who are urging china to take steps to close down these markets, where people sell both live and slaughtered bats an

. >> ed: we know the coronavirus originated in wuhan, china and general mark milley reported that thel origins and did not come from a bio weapons lab in wuhan. >> there's a lot of rumor and speculation and it should be no surprise to you that we have taken a keen interest in that. we have had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that. at this point it's inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. but we don't know for certain. >> ed: is joining us now as secretary of defense mark esper we certainly appreciate you coming in. the associated press has a major story this morning breaking saying that there were six key days when this outbreak started to wear a top chinese officials kept it quiet. they knew that this was all developing. they essentially covered it up and they let millions of people travel around the lunar new year and here we are now thousands of americans who have died. our entire economy upended what can you do in the days ahead to hold china accountable? >> first let me speak to what dod is doing. the united states. from the beginning g

chairman milley did a great deal of work on this and we felt there was no risk to the fleet, to our operations to free up in this case naval ships. we also freed up aircraft and other assets to apply them to this presidential priority. and of course the coast guard did the same. so it was a very good operation. we feel this is very important to the american people, and completely in line with the president's direction. >> and how long will you be able to keep up this operational tempo? >> well, it depends. we're going run it for some matter of time. i'm not going to disclose how long that will be. and then we'll assess it and adjust it. we may increase. we may see de crease. we may sustain as is. we'll report back to the president, and we'll take further guidance from there. >> and didn't do it for this reason, but it will also have an impact on the virus because we have people trying to get in. so not only drugs, but now we have a new phenomenon. and that's at least for the next hopefully short period of time, the virus. so we'll be able to have an impact on that too. please? >> yeah, mr. pre

security advisor robert o'bryant will provide more details in addition i'm going to have general milley who has done an incredible of so many with us say a few words and also with us or chief of naval operations admiral gilday will you know i think you know and commandant of the coast guard admiral shields so i'm going to ask mark to start and then we can go and after that we're going to take questions as it pertains to this and then we'll go on to phase 2 which is a virus itself ok thank you please. well thank you mr president and good afternoon everyone appreciate the opportunity to be here today as we make this very important announcement at a time when the nation and the department defense are focused on protecting the american people from the spread of the coronavirus we also remain vigilant to the many other threats our country faces today at the president's direction the department defense in close cooperation with our inner agency partners began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the eastern pacific ocean and the caribbean sea this initiative is part of the administration'

that is not easy for milley under american policymakers to do. ultimately people wanted legitimacy for whatever they identify, they wanted representation for whatever their identity was, the problem of course is identity changes with time. what is clear is that people were increasingly finding themselves disenfranchised, this is not just an issue of the arab or an issue of the anti-iranian protest but there seems to be a failure of the traditional-isms in the middle east which is why they wrote his chapter of reimagining or reconsidering all the ideology that play because take example of iraq, 40% of iraqis were born after the 2003 war, more than 60% of iraqis were born after the 1991 war which means no one has a functional memory of what life was like under saddam hussein under the swath of the youth, therefore no longer willing to accept that we might have our problems from some of the islamic for example but at least were not set on hussein. people are looking at this generation which defeated saddam hussein and the other ideologues and dictat

the larger issue and the thing that general milley deals with is what about the rest of the world?hat about when developing countries really hit the peak of their infections and what is that going to mean for their governments and social structures and could there be regime change even if -- in one of these countries if things go that south? those are the kind of things that are going to be the really long-term effects in terms of our national security interests. really how this ends up affecting the rest of the world. host: let's hear from russ tin, virginia. caller: hi. this is ken. the chinese have asked for the medical records of the 300-person u.s. delegation that participated in the world military games in wuhan last october. as far as i know, we've refused to provide them with that information. would it be the pentagon that's prohibiting that or the c.d.c. or what? guest: that would be the pentagon's decision, yeah. never mind having to scrub identification and stuff from all of those medical records. i think that's kind of -- it's an abject rejection of the theory that than

we need to step back and i think the president and his team and general milley and his team, they're focused on the accurate information so we can assess and respond. of course the priority right now is to save americans lives and that's what the president is doing. neil: if the chinese did duped people, they duped the president of the united states as well who said as you know, general, back in january that they were working hard on this, that they were being very transparent. so was he fooled by them as well? >> no, i don't think so. i think what happened is, you know, intelligence, you read intelligence every single day and make the best assessments that you get from the folks that you have in-country and in the region and make assessments. the assessments, this was not hume human-to-human and the president made a decision that was unpopular to shut down china, based on instinct to shut down travel and that directly has saved tens of thousands of lives from my point of view. and then to shut down travel from europe. as we got more clarity on the information on what i would call th

including yesterday, mark milley gave an update on the covid cases on navy ships.ne of the tr's reporting significant amounts of covid, we did have a single sailor, one sailor on the nimitz testing positive, but he was out of state, not yet on the nimitz, and he remains to this day out-of-state. a second stale or -- a second sailor displayed symptoms and was placed in isolation and is not on the ship. that is the nimitz. all the other ships at sea are reporting zero at this time. interestingly, too, the cruiser crew that wase with the tr, somebody asked earlier, the crew that was with the tr in danang, they reported zero as well. we are confident right now, but let me also mention that what the navy is doing to implement, for future deployment. crews, the subn. cru fleet, especially the triad piece of that, all those crews are being tested as tests become available. we are doing the same thing with other critical components of the bomber force, the high-end tier one forces, and some of our rapid deployment reserve forces. prioritization of the force, for testing an

. >> defense secretary mark esper and joint chiefs of staff chair general mark milley will brief reporters this afternoon on the military's response to the covid-19 pandemic. you will have live coverage starting at 230 eastern -- 2:30 eastern from the pentagon. president trump believes the white house coronavirus task force briefing this afternoon, scheduled for 5:00 eastern. watch it live on c-span. ♪ primehington journal time, a special evening addition of the washington journal on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. our guests are a wall street journal correspondent and foxbusiness contributor on the government debt incurred to combat the coronavirus economic woes, and a university of buffalo associate professor on her research into the pandemic's igfects on the nation's g economy workers. join the conversation tonight on c-span. c-span has around-the-clock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and it is all available on demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread through